Cuomo: We’ll deal with CampFin and abortion in elections

Gov. Andrew Cuomo said there won’t be deals on an anti-corruption package or a slate of women’s equality measures before the state Legislature adjourns this week.

As I reported this morning, each issue has found a roadblock in the state Senate, where Republicans who control the chamber in a coalition with the four-member Independent Democratic Conference are refusing to allow votes on items favored by Cuomo and other Democrats, including the IDC’s own members. Late last night, IDC Leader Jeff Klein introduced his own women’s bill — without abortion language.

“I think it’s a mistake for the IDC, who are theoretically Democrats,” Cuomo told Susan Arbetter during an interview on “The Capitol Pressroom.” “It’s not what they said initially, and I think that’s what’s giving people pause. Women’s Equality, especially, campaign finance, public finance, what they’re really saying is, these are going to be election issues next year. And they’re not going to take them up governmentally.”

Without a public corruption package that the governor deems acceptable, he said, he will convene a Moreland Act Commission to “review the way we finance campaigns … review the intersection of money and politics and government in the State of New York. If you find cases, send them to the DA and tell us how to make the system better.”

And that’s how I spent my summer. But: what will get done this week?

Cuomo told Arbetter that he was close to a deal on privatizing the Long Island Power Authority, as Newsday reported this morning. He said his plan to create tax free zones — the subject of eight Cuomovangelization events this very day — is “probably the single most powerful economic program the state has talked about in decades,” and is “achievable” before the week’s end. Finally, the governor said a panel to address fiscally stressed Upstate cities and put forward language that would limit the size of awards in binding arbitration with their police and fire unions.

Cuomo said he would not provide messages of necessity that waive the required three-day waiting period between a bill’s introduction and its consideration by legislators. That means final agreements on all of these issues must be finalized today, if legislators hope to leave as planned on Thursday.